Would YOU Trust This “Trusted Real Estate Advisor”?

March 18, 2008 by Joe Kennedy.

It never ceases to amaze me what some real estate “professionals” or self proclaimed “trusted real estate advisors” will write to try to make a buck.  In this post, a “trusted real estate advisor” from John L. Scott writes about how “the media” is constantly attacking the real estate industry.  As both a real estate broker and a member of “the media” (who by the way won the Media of the Year Award from the Seattle King County Board of Realtors in 2006 - the most recent year they awarded it), I am personally insulted that anyone - especially a Realtor would attempt to make a case for “the media” causing the impending imploding of the real estate market.  In many cases, these are the same people who have been telling their clients that they can continue to expect double digit appreciation each year on any home they purchase - the same clients who have a better chance of losing a ton of money as the local market “readjusts” to more reasonable prices.

I should write here that before writing this post, I spent a good amount of time writing a comment on the “trusted real estate advisor”’s post - and as I predicted, it was deleted without even a response from the original author (who I do not personally know - or have any desire to).  One thing I wrote in my comment is that I’m sure she did not give “the media” credit in the past few years when she was selling listings for more than asking price in less than 24 hours - of course not.  It was because she is a “trusted real estate advisor” and such a professional - in her mind it had nothing to do with the fact that money was so easy to borrow, that anyone who simply stated they made $100k per year could qualify to buy homes that were valued way too high.  As pointed out in the following post, many of those buyers are now losing their asses - but their “trusted real estate advisor” still got paid.

Despite real estate professionals like this who have their heads in the sand, have been ignoring all the warning signs of doom and are grasping at straws and blaming “the media” - there are some who are actually living through the problems brought about by the good times of the past few years - and telling it as it is: as one broker put it -  “The reality is, our real estate market is in the tank,”.

In my humble opinion, the Eastside may not be quite there yet, but our real estate market is in for real trouble.  This broker and member of the media, has been warning people for over a year that the local market is greatly overvalued - and it saddens me to hear stories like the one in the PI article linked to above, who lost over $100k in less than 6 months.   I’m afraid we are going to be hearing a lot more of those stories in the next few years - and will be doing what I can to help these people out of their problems - and warn them to be careful when choosing a “trusted real estate advisor” - or when listening to anyone who blames the media for reporting the news.

Posted in Blaming the media, real estate market in the tank, Bubble, Media, Blogging, REALTORS, Bellevue | No Comments »